Aleksandar Mitrovic says Fulham already feels like home after he scored his second goal in four days to see off league leaders Wolves last night and give the Cottagers’ promotion push a shot in the arm.
The on-loan Newcastle United striker scored a sensational individual goal to clinch Fulham’s eighth successive home league win over the Championship’s champions-elect last night and demonstrated why Slavisa Jokanovic was so delighted to sign him right at the end of the January transfer window. Mitrovic is relishing the chance to play regular first team football after being frozen out at St. James’ Park by Rafa Benitez and told GetWestLondon’s Ryan O’Donovan that returning to the Premier League with the Whites is his main priority.
My first target is to get promoted with Fulham directly first, if we can, the second thing is the World Cup. I will leave [the] World Cup until the end of the season, but at the moment I’m really focused with Fulham, the team and my game and try improve in training and help the team every game I can.
It’s a good feeling to be here and I am looking forward to every game and I want to play and get on the pitch, this is the reason I’m here. I think Fulham needs me and I need Fulham, we both need each other and I’m really happy.
Mitrovic admitted that reuniting with Jokanovic was one of the major reasons why he chose to make the late move to London on transfer deadline day. The pair, who were together at Partizan Belgrade when the 23 year-old was beginning his career, messaged each other on WhatsApp to ensure Mitrovic would head to Fulham after his proposed return to Anderlecht fell through.
We have a really good connection, we are from the same country and he was a really big player in Serbia and now he is one of the best coaches that Serbia has. This is one of the reasons why I came here – I know he will understand me and I will understand him and this style that he play at Fulham for two, three years is really good and a style that I think every striker likes. This is [a] reason why I came and I’m really happy here, the team helped me in the beginning and I feel like I’m home and I really, really enjoy it here.
The Serbian international remains convinced of his ability to grace the finest stages in English and European football.
Of course, I already played at that level, in my first season at Newcastle I scored ten goals as a 21-year-old. Okay we got relegated but I think I showed people I can play that level, but this season I couldn’t show because I didn’t play a lot. I know my qualities, I believe in myself and I know I have qualities to play not just Premier League, but Champions League level because I say I already played Champions League and Premier League and I saw how they play football and I know I have quality.
But I’m not going to think about [the] Premier League, I’m a Fulham player and focused on Fulham and every game here. I’m really happy after a long time, I’m on the pitch, for the first time I don’t know how long I play 90 minutes and I really enjoyed the moment and I want to stay here and help Fulham get promoted. This is the only target in my head.
